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This event will explore the subjectivities of neighbourhood identity in 'Liverpool 8' (part of the wider Toxteth locale). This area of Liverpool is of particular interest given the historically significant emergence of politicised community identities rooted in urban unrest, socio-economic inequalities, racial discrimination, and coercive policing. We use in-depth interviews and focus groups alongside innovative community mapping to explore what is understood by 'L8'. We consider whether the highly politicised neighbourhood identities of the recent past have been reproduced and passed on through successive generations, or whether these have been replaced with other forms of identity.

Three broad themes have framed this research, which we will consider in this paper: (i) How the formation and reproduction of neighbourhood identities relate to geographical, political, generational, contemporary and historical contexts; the intersectionality of other factors ('race'/ethnicity, class and gender); and the way identities can be subject to contestation and challenge; (ii) The role played by external perceptions of neighbourhood identity, in particular how far these can reinforce, perpetuate or undermine internal identities of belonging; (iii) The extent to which neighbourhood identity and allegiance are both relational and rooted in wider structural factors that influence and impact on levels of social inequality and exclusion.